


All too Fleeting

by zinjadu



Series: Knight-Errant [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Celebrations, Drinking, Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 16:27:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8168464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinjadu/pseuds/zinjadu
Summary: After being raised up to Knight-Errant, Ahsoka has a day to soak up all the good feelings from her friends, reconnecting with her fellow Padawans, attending a Padme-hosted celebration, and, of course, partying with her troopers.Oh, and Fives drunk dials Rex.Just some cuteness before the pace picks up again.





	

Ahsoka flopped down on her bed, now in her own set of rooms, not even bothering to take off her clothes. When she had entered, she had been greeted by a box containing her meager belongings, and instead of being upset at having so little, she had been shown that day how much she really did have. Smiling, she curled up as she always did, the hurt and sorrow she felt about Barriss no longer as sharp and cutting as it had been. It was still here, but it had been surrounded by the love of her friends, like wrapping fabric around a broken piece of glass, letting her handle the glass without cutting herself.

 

And between one moment and the next, she drifted off into the comforting arms of sleep.

 

* * *

 

After the ceremony with the Council, Ahsoka had gone with Anakin to pack up her things. It hadn’t taken long, but she noticed that her former Master was a bit maudlin, in spite of his pride in her success.

 

“I thought you’d be happier about this, Skyguy,” she teased, nudging him with a sharp elbow.

 

“I am, Snips,” he said, then paused, frowning at the small box that contained the sum of her life at the Temple. “It’s just, I guess it didn’t hit me that it also means you’re not going to be here. We’ll be sent on different missions more often, and well. I’m going to miss you.”

 

“I’m gonna miss you too,” she said honestly, and hugged him without a second thought. He had always been a bundle of emotions but had tried to keep his demonstrations of affection small, like his Master. But Ahsoka figured if any time was due for a hug, it was this one.   After a slight hesitation, he hugged her back, his arms tight around her, like he didn’t want to let go.

 

Thinking about it, she knew that he didn’t.

 

But he did.

 

“I’m so proud of you, Ahsoka,” he said, his hands on her shoulders, and she smiled.

 

“I know. Thank you, Master, for everything you’ve taught me,” she said, a touch formal but ruining it with a huntress’s smile. “Even how to hotwire ships.”

 

“Hey, it’s a valuable life skill,” he said airily, stepped back and picking up the box of her things. “How about I take care of this?”

 

“You sure?” she asked, knowing it wasn’t a terrible imposition, only being one box, but seeing her new rooms might trigger another letting go issue. Though, he did feel more stable than usual, their training bond still unbroken by mutual if unspoken agreement.

 

He grinned, like he could read her mind not just her emotions.

 

“I’ll be fine, Ahsoka. Go, get some food, talk to your friends. Just… be normal for the day, alright? Favor to me,” he said, and squeezing her shoulder with his free hand. His flesh and blood one, because he tried not to touch people with his mechanical one.

 

“Once I figure out what normal is, you got it, Anakin,” she quipped, and laughing they left the rooms that weren’t _their_ rooms anymore, but that was okay.

 

* * *

 

“Ahsoka!” a red-haired human girl, only a year younger than herself, called out as she entered the cafeteria. Ahsoka broke into a grin when she saw that the girl was working to make space at a table for her.

 

“Hey Scout,” she said, dropping in between the girl and a Chiss boy, who she greeted with a happy, “Nuru.”

 

There were welcomes all around. Most of her rough age-mates and fellow Padawans she didn’t get to see all that often. The war keeping them apart when they should be spending time together, learning from each other just as much as they learned from their Masters. Though she had grown the closest to Barriss (and just thinking the name hurt), she resolved to be better at keeping in touch with the rest of her friends.

 

Then she saw Zonder, a large Selonian with shaggy fur and currently sorrowful yellow eyes. And then Ahsoka recalled that Zonder was closer in age to Barriss than her, and they had even been in the same youngling clan. With a sad smile, Ahsoka reached across the table and touched his large, clawed hand briefly. His expression only flickered, but she sent a wave of understanding and he let her see some of his feelings at losing his friend.

 

“So its all over the Temple, you know,” Bargu said, her form currently that of a female human, instead of her natural shape, likely training for something.

 

“I heard you’re a Knight now, does that mean we have to call you ‘Master Tano’? Because I don’t think I can say that with a straight face,” Tai said, a dark-skinned human girl, with a deeply skeptical expression almost permanently on her face.

 

“That would require you to have a straight face in the first place,” Ahsoka teased back, with a grin.

 

“What should we call you, then?” Caleb, a human boy asked. “I mean, Master Billaba…”

 

“Ugh, we know, you finally got chosen by a Master, well done and all, but you could shut up about it now and again,” Ekria said, her eyes narrowed. Ahsoka knew her the least well of everyone, a Barolian who had loved slicing from day one while Ahsoka had focused on combat. Caleb flushed scarlet at Ekria’s remark, but he let it pass. Likely because she had just lost her own Master only recently and was still hurting.

 

“Just call me by my name, alright. And I’m not a Knight, I’m a Knight-Errant,” she explained, digging into her food. “Means I still have to go through another Trial and everything, but that Master Skywalker isn’t my Master anymore.”

 

“So he’d be looking for a new Padawan, then?” Tai said, eyes alight.

 

“Lots of Masters are without Padawans,” Nuru said, “but that doesn’t obligate them to choose anyone.”

 

“Easy for you to say, Nuru,” Tai shot back, “You’re going back out there tomorrow on another mission with your Master, while most of us are stuck here.”

 

“Hey!” Scout interjected, standing slightly and getting the attention of the table. “I think we’re all forgetting how close we came to losing Ahsoka this week, and I, for one, think we should be celebrating instead of bickering.” There were sheepish looks all around after Scout’s admonishment, but Ahsoka quickly shook her head.

 

“You know what, having a bit of normal bickering sounds about perfect right now,” she said, and threw an arm around Scout’s shoulders, giving the girl a quick but firm hug.

 

“You sure?” Zonder asked. “We could always go on one last kitchen raid with you. You always did like getting at the raw meat.”

 

“You and me both, Z,” she said, smiling in memory at sneaking the fresh meat they never let her or the other carnivores at. It seemed to offend something in the omnivores and herbivores, that. “But I think… no, I know normal is exactly what I need. No adventures, for one day at least. For novelty’s sake if nothing else.”

 

“You do get yourself into a lot of trouble,” Nuru said dryly, which made Tai snort derisively.

 

“Stating the obvious again,” Tai said, and they were all at it again. Caleb trying to be the perfect Padawan as Master Billaba would want, Ekria teasing him for it, and Bargu filling Ahsoka in on Temple gossip.

 

It was, all in all, nice to be normal for a while.

 

* * *

 

Going to Padme’s small celebration party ( _just a small gathering, Ahoska, nothing big, I promise_ ), was certainly not normal. At least she and Anakin and Master Kenobi, no Obi-Wan (and that would be hard to get used to), got to wear their traditional Jedi robes. Poor Rex had been stuffed into a Republic bridge officer’s uniform and had looked like wanted to shoot everything in sight until Admiral Yularen had showed up, taken pity on the trooper and they started talking about the various pros and cons of the new battleships that were rolling off the production lines now.

 

However, as the guest of honor, Ahsoka was not allowed to fade into the background. Or so she had been told by Padme in no uncertain terms.

 

Ahsoka loved Padme dearly, but stars, the woman could be authoritarian sometimes!

 

“Thank you, Senator Organa,” she said to the representative from Alderaan. “Padme told me what you did on the committee, helping to clarify points and keep everything running smoothly.”

 

“I did what little I could, which was small enough Knight-Errant Tano,” he said, his voice serious but his dark eyes were bright with laughter as she pulled a face at her new, cumbersome title.

 

“Please, could you just call me Ahsoka?” she asked, knowing she sounded pleading but not caring. “Everyone else does.”

 

“Only if you call me Bail,” he countered, and she grinned, holding out her hand to shake.

 

“Deal,” she declared, and she felt like the party became a little less onerous at that point. Then the door opened, and she saw Lux and Riyo enter.

 

“Sorry we’re late,” Riyo said, “but I do believe they schedule our committee meetings late on purpose.”

 

“I’m so happy you came!” Ahsoka said, hugging the small Pantoran Senator happily. “And you too, Lux,” she said, giving him a brief hug and trying not to feel awkward. He smiled, that oddly shy yet cocky smile he had.

 

“And thank you, both of you,” she said earnestly. “I know you both called in a lot of favors for me.”

 

“Of course, Ahsoka,” Riyo said immediately. “You are a dear friend.”

 

“Indeed, though I know you fight well, you are no coward, unlike that poor mad girl who _did_ do all of this,” Lux said, and Ahsoka remembered that Lux, for all his charm, had his blind-spots. Riyo noticed Ahsoka’s hesitation and broke in.

 

“Yes, well, let us focus on the good, not the bad right now, yes? Come, come, you must tell us how you have been. I see so you little,” Riyo said, and Ahsoka recounted a few of her more recent adventures.

 

As the celebration drew to a close and almost everyone had left, Ahsoka lingered in the Senator’s beautiful apartments at Padme’s request. So she sat on a far too comfortable sofa, enjoying the rare cocoa drink Padme kept on hand for rare occasions.

 

“So, do you have any idea what’s in store for you next?” Padme asked, eyes on Ahsoka. Ahsoka had asked Anakin and Obi-Wan previously, but neither of them knew how this would go. The Knight-Errant position was old, but unused, and how the Council would assign her was anyone’s guess, even for someone _on_ the Council, it seemed.

 

“No idea, if only because no one else has any idea either,” she said. Padme laughed, a rich, lovely sound.

 

“Well, I think we have all seen how fallible our systems are, how precious and precarious,” Padme said, with a soft smile behind her mug. “Regardless, I am glad you are staying. I look forward to seeing you continue to follow your own path, Ahsoka.”

 

“I… You’ve done so much for me Padme, I don’t, I can’t,” Ahsoka stammered, tongue-tied for the first time that whole day, a surge of emotion beginning to overhwelm her. Padme placed a hand on her shoulder, and just like that she felt calmer. Padme might not be Force-sensitive, at least as far as Ahsoka knew, but she did have a beautiful kind of calmness about her, an inner well of peace that anyone who was a Force-sensitive could feel.

 

“Ahsoka, you don’t have to thank me, though I appreciate it. I’m only grateful that I was able to help you, and that you survived this ordeal. You,” Padme started, stopped and then frowned, composing her words before she spoke. “I was a queen, for a time, and I learned what it was to inspire people, to provide hope in the darkest times. But that is something you do naturally, your faith does more than see _you_ through troubled times, it buoys others as well. I am so proud that you aren’t letting go of that part of yourself, that you aren’t letting this take that away from you.”

 

Ahsoka didn’t know what to say. She was stunned at the idea. That _Padme_ found _her_ inspiring? Ridiculous.

 

“Padme, _you_ inspired _me_ ,” she said earnestly. “I thought of everything you’ve done, how hard you’ve fought for what was right, and I knew I couldn’t do anything else.”

 

“And that, my friend, is why you give myself and others hope,” Padme said, grinning.

 

* * *

 

As Ahsoka exited the Senatorial apartment building, she arrived to find a peculiar standoff.

 

“No, Fives, you cannot take Ahsoka to 79’s,” Anakin was saying to the assembled lot of troopers, arms crossed over his chest.

 

“Sir, with all due respect, she’s not your Padawan anymore. And we’d like to celebrate our girl getting promoted in the traditional matter,” Fives said, a cheeky challenge in his voice.

 

“But I am your General. So no,” Anakin said flatly.

 

“Hey guys,” Ahsoka said, grinning, holding her hands behind her back and rocking on her heels. “I’m not interrupting something am I?”

 

“Not all, Ahsoka! Meet us at 79s!” Fives called, and all the troopers beat a hasty retreat, exploiting the loophole that if they didn’t arrive together, then technically they didn’t _take_ her to the clone bar.

 

“You don’t have to go, you know,” Anakin said, and to his credit he only looked a little worried.

 

“I don’t,” she said, “but I’m going to.” He sighed. She grinned.

 

This Knight-Errant thing did have its perks.

 

* * *

 

“But you hate beer!” Jesse said incredulously.

 

“I hate _human_ alcohol,” she declared, admitting that she was only slightly drunk. “But _Togruta_ alcohol is great.”

 

“What is it?” Kix asked, taking an experimental sniff and then recoiling. “Space, it smells like ashes!”

 

“Like drinking a fire!” she yelled as the music picked up in volume again. Then she noticed Fives using a comm. “What’re you doing _vod_?”

 

“Calling Rex! Ha! He hates it when we do this, but now you get to have the fun too,” Fives said, and then spoke into the comm. “Got our Knight-Errant here, sir, say hi.”

 

“Ahsoka?!” Rex cried, normally commanding voice tinny through the comm, “Please tell me Fives didn’t get you drunk.”

 

“I got myself drunk, thank you very much,” she said proudly. “ _Nar’him_ , it’ll add some height to your montrals… or whatever the human equivalent is. I don’t know.”

 

“Hair on your chest,” Tup informed her mildly, and she grinned.

 

“Thanks, Tup, yeah, hair on your chest, Rex, which by the way is fine the way it is,” she started rambling.

 

“Ahsoka! Stars!” Rex interrupted, and she blinked, looking around her at the grinning faces of her brothers.  

 

“What?” she asked, confused.

 

“Just… see her home, all of you, now,” Rex ordered.

 

“Or you could come here and make sure I get home, Rexter,” she offered. It just made sense really, if he was so worried.

 

“Yeah, Captain, if you’re so worried, you come down here and keep an eye on her… on things,” Fives drawled, but Ahsoka had stopped listening as a new song came on. It was fast but had a booming beat to it.

 

“If that’s settled, I’m dancing! Tup, its your turn!” And she dragged Tup out on the dance floor, celebrating for all she was worth.

 

Eventually, Rex showed up, only to spend most of his time glaring at his brothers until they decided to leave.

 

“You know,” she said as they reached the Temple, Rex adamant about seeing her back safely. “You’d have more fun if you loosened up. Dance a bit. Though, I can’t picture you dancing.”

 

Rex snorted derisively as she hopped out of the air speeder. Then he looked at her, a dry but amused look.

 

“That’s not dancing. That lot wouldn’t know real dancing if it quickstepped right in front of them,” he said, and then took off into the night, leaving her to wonder how in all nine Corellian hells Rex, of all people, knew that a quickstep even existed.

 

Then she smiled and laughed. A man of hidden depths, her Captain.

 

With a slightly fuzzy head and giggling all the way back to her new rooms, Ahsoka knew that tomorrow her life as Jedi and Commander in the Grand Army of the Republic would pick up again. And that days and nights like this, still moments in time where life happened, were fleeting.

 

And, thus, all the more precious for it.

**Author's Note:**

> “Togruta” (as always, Tolkien’s elvish)  
> Nar’him = fire ale
> 
> I imagine, being carnivores, Togruta aren’t fans of human-style fermented grains, but would rather like things like Scotch whiskey, which is distilled and has that smoky flavor. … And because B_Radley might write a really good version of Ahsoka as a hard drinking hot mess after Order 66.
> 
> Also, I debated having this, or something like it, as the epilogue to “In Pursuit” but decided I liked the final line of that too much to do that. So, standalone fluff-fest.


End file.
